So the day of reckoning has apparently finally come for the NCAA. With a strong, albeit limited, ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in the Ed O'Bannon antitrust case, a federal judge in California has exposed the concept of amateurism in major-college athletes for the mockery it is.

Judge Claudia Wilken's ruling is being appealed, but unless the NCAA's attorneys can make a case that there was some pertinent information that was disallowed, it's unclear what grounds they can use other than: "You're just wrong." They had two weeks to present their case. It reminds one of this scene from "A Few Good Men:"

Conference commissioners like Mike Slive and Bob Bowlsby are taking the silver lining in the limited scope of the ruling and preparing to move forward. Whether the Big Ten's Jim Delany -- Mr. We'll Just De-Emphasize Athletics -- will join them remains to be seen.

For the rest of us, there's no sense bemoaning the "death" of college athletics. They're not going anyway. This just means that presidents and athletics directors will have to take a little of the millions they throw at coaches and construction companies and set it aside for the people who make their jobs possible -- the student-athletes.

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